Paul Wells
The Paul Wells Show podcast
The Paul Wells New Year's Party
0:00
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -52:12
-52:12

The Paul Wells New Year's Party

Looking ahead, with tales, tunes and a Panel
Your host with Garry Keller, Dec. 9. All photos by Curtis Perry.

Happy New Year. It’s time for the second podcast episode drawn from the big Paul Wells Holiday Show that we threw at the National Arts Centre on Dec. 9.

The night’s first set became our Dec. 18 episode. It featured singer Scott Merritt, guitarist/singer Jocelyn Gould, a Christmas tale from your host, a heartwarming call to action from the director of the excellent Ottawa nonprofit Options Housing, and the freewheeling political duo of Jason Kenney and Kathleen Wynne. You should check it out if you haven’t yet.

But after Christmas, people are more keen to look ahead than back, so our second set at the NAC’s Fourth Stage was about the future. In this episode, my mildly-partisan Panel — Marci Surkes, Garry Keller, Allison Gifford — discussed the lessons from 2024 that will matter most in the crucial political year of 2025. My own opening monologue expounded on similar themes.

But even the artists whose presence make these holiday shows so different from my other podcasts were invited to look ahead.

Ian Williams was ending a good year. He delivered the 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, an honour he can add to his 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his first novel, Reproduction, and the accolades he’s won for his poetry. But I heard he has a new novel coming out in 2025, so I asked him to read from it. It’s called You’ve Changed. It’s about a marriage in crisis, or it starts with that. Ian’s excerpt takes place at couples therapy, and it is situated at the intersection of hilarious and excruciating, a precinct that will be familiar to readers of his keenly-observed writing. I always say it’s an honour to have my guests, but in Ian’s case it was also a delight.

Bookending Ian’s appearance were two songs from the Montreal singer Alexandra Levy, who performs as Ada Lea. All I knew about her when I invited her was that I loved her 2021 album one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, which was longlisted for the Polaris Prize. She opens with “Damn,” that album’s opening track and probably her best-known song. Then she sings “Baby Blue Frigidaire Mini Fridge,” a new song from her upcoming 2025 album. There’s that glimpse of the future again. Ada Lea is methodical and disciplined about writing these songs that sound like dreams or revelations; she’s been teaching the songwriting craft at Concordia University, for students who must know how lucky they are to learn from her.

Actually the other thing I knew when I invited her, although it’s a thing of more general application and not specifically about her, is that it is far too hard for independent artists to reach broader audiences. I’m pleased to introduce her to mine.

We close with The Panel, whom you’ve heard before and will again. Marci Surkes was Justin Trudeau’s policy director from 2019 to 2022 and is now Chief Strategy Officer at Compass Rose. Garry Keller was chief of staff to John Baird in government and Rona Ambrose in opposition, and is now a Vice President at StrategyCorp. Allison Gifford worked with Jack Layton in 2011 and is now VP (Policy and Public Affairs) at Clear Strategy. They were speaking, I believe I should point out, a week before Chrystia Freeland delivered her epistolary shock to the Trudeau government, but it was already obvious that 2025 will not be an ordinary political year. We had a good conversation.

In this episode as in the first, Jocelyn Gould played de facto music director. The Winnipeg jazz guitarist and singer charmed the audience.

And yes, the announcer at the top of the show is former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne.

These annual variety shows began as a question — if I program interesting content, will my subscribers fill a room? — and an impulse: I wanted to thank my subscribers in a tangible way. After two consecutive Christmases, it’s clear that the answer to the question is a resounding Yes. Producer Jess Milton and I are already brainstorming for a 2025 Holiday Show in a bigger NAC venue than their lovely Fourth Stage, which we sold out in four hours. And I’m looking at another venue in a different city for a variety show for another part of the year. (I’ll also keep recording more traditional podcast episodes in live events where that works.)

These events cost money and need sponsorship. I’m grateful to the National Arts Centre, who are always generous hosts for my mad schemes. Regan Watts, who knows everyone in Ottawa, helped me find sponsors on short notice for this year’s event. Thanks to Meta and WestJet for their support, which was crucial to the success of this project.

You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and a bunch of other platforms via the “Listen On” button that you can see at the top of this post when you view it on your desktop browser. If you listen on a podcast platform, hit “Like” and “Subscribe” buttons, and leave a good review, to help spread the word.

I am grateful to be the Max Bell Foundation Senior Fellow at McGill University, the principal patron of this podcast. Antica Productions, most often in the person of this podcast’s stalwart producer Kevin Sexton, turns these interviews into a podcast every week. Kevin Breit wrote and performed the theme music, which was news to Jocelyn Gould and which she was delighted to hear, because every good guitarist knows Kevin Breit. Andy Milne plays it on piano at the end of most episodes. Thanks to all of them and to you. Please tell your friends to subscribe to The Paul Wells Show on their favourite podcast app, or here on the newsletter.

Discussion about this podcast

Paul Wells
The Paul Wells Show podcast
Canada's leading podcast for serious, respectful interviews with leading newsmakers, thinkers and creators from Canada and around the world.